The Uttar Pradesh government has suspended the sub-divisional magistrate of Kanpur Rural and arrested a revenue inspector and a bulldozer driver after two persons died during a demolition drive, as it emerged that the house had been deliberately set on fire to draw out the occupants.

Pramila Dixit, 54, and her daughter Shiva, 22, died of burn injuries suffered during the demolition drive on Monday afternoon when a bulldozer was used to raze their home that had been deemed as having encroached on government land.

Faced with a backlash over the alleged targeting of Brahmins under the rule of chief minister Yogi Adityanath, a Rajput, the BJP government suspended Gyaneshwar Prasad, the sub-divisional magistrate of Kanpur Rural, and arrested Ashok Kumar, a lekhpal (revenue inspector), and Deepak Kumar, the driver of the bulldozer. Adityanath has ordered a magisterial inquiry in addition to the SIT probe.

Although the government is yet to officially address the issue, a source in the administration said: “According to the initial probe, Pramila Dixit and her daughter Shiva had gone inside a hut the family owns adjacent to their house in Chahla-Majhauli village when the bulldozer team reached there and locked it from inside, ostensibly to stop them from carrying out the demolition. But the lekhpal approached the hut from the open backdoor and set it on fire.

“At the same time, the driver of the bulldozer tried to demolish the house in the name of Pramila’s husband Krishna Gopal Dixit but ended up razing the hut that was already on fire. A generator kept inside the hut overturned and the diesel spilt out, further feeding the fire.”

The official added: “The victims could have been saved had the revenue department officials and the police done their duty. Some women constables who were part of the team were busy with their phones.”

Ankit Dixit, the son of Krishna Gopal and Pramila, said: “The entire village saw the lekhpal setting the hut ablaze with a matchstick. Later, Dinesh Gautam, the station house officer of Rura police station, tried to set me also on fire by pushing me into the hut. The revenue and police officers were acting according to the wishes of some affluent villagers who wanted to grab our land and house.”

“The bulldozer team had been paid by those villagers as they are against the Brahmins.... The team members were acting so aggressively that they could have crushed us under the wheels of the bulldozer. When they failed to do so, they set my wife and daughter on fire,” Krishna Gopal said.

District magistrate Neha Jain said the allegations were baseless. “A proper inquiry was done before the demolition squad was sent,” she said.